"For everything there is a season..." There are seasons in our lives that can only be viewed from the lens of retirement.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Giving Thanks

Grocery shopping during the Thanksgiving season, especially the day before Thanksgiving is a major chore. Thanks be to God I got most of mine done on Monday. The required turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, etc are set out so that everyone can see them. But for some reason they are not on the shelf where I can find them the rest of the year. I am so used to ignoring the “special displays” that I can’t find what I need. All I have to pick up now is ice cream and flowers.

We are having over 4 women friends. This is going to be a “hen Thanksgiving” and I am looking forward to it. Nothing is too different when the group is all women except that half the group is not in front of the TV watching the traditional football rivalries. Such a group is usually missing family but we enjoy the chance to tell funny stories, argue politics without being shouted down and try out our favorite recipes with each other.

I think I want to ask everyone at the table to name what they are thankful for during the prayer before dinner. I am always thankful for my congregation and the Church. I am thankful for a warm home and good health. I am thankful that I have friends who come and help J and I celebrate the feast. But I have prayers for friends who have died this past week and other friends who have gotten bad health reports. I have prayers for people who have no possibility of having a feast or those who are lost in dementia and don’t know it is a feast. I have prayers for my nation and thanksgivings for those who have made it strong--- from those Pilgrims who feasted with the Indians so long ago to those who now stand watch all over the globe.

I am thankful for 65 years of Thanksgivings and how they have molded me to have an attitude of gratitude. But most of all I am thankful for a faith that has been flexible enough to embrace and love those who have come into my life. I am thankful for the chance to be a servant of God in the Church and the grace of perseverance to remain faithful to that God who loves me despite all the temptations to walk along other paths. And I give thanks that there will be more opportunities to give thanks.

Rest in peace, Gingie and Jim. Your thanksgivings are complete. I give thanks for your friendships.

Loud Sounding Wisdom

There is nothing so secular that it cannot be sacred, and that is one of the deepest messages of the Incarnation.(Madeleine L'Engle)

"Do we really want a gracious God?Certainly we do -- for ourselves;but can we have a gracious Godif we don't believe that the same graceis given to those sinners outside our church doors,outside our faith, outside our boundaries of acceptability?" Pr. Brian Stroffregen

Blogger's Prayer

"Almighty God, you proclaim your truth in every age by many voices: Direct, in our time, we pray, those who speak where many listen and write what many read; that they may do their part in making the heart of this people wise, its mind sound, and its will righteous; to the honor of Jesus Christ our Lord."Book of Common Prayer

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About Me

I am an unabashedly liberal Episcopal priest from a time when being a liberal was a "good" thing. If I am knee-jerk about anything it is about seeing that justice is done by those of us who call ourselves Christians or who are about serving Christ in the Church.